A Brief History On September 18, 1838, English businessman and politician Richard Cobden along with free trade advocate John Bright established the Anti-Corn Law League, an action taken in opposition to the “Corn Laws” that had been enacted in Britain since 1815, a series of tariffs on goods imported from outside of Britain, especially grain products, hence the name “Corn Laws.” Today, we take a look at even more of the laws people love to hate, as we have previously done in our articles on this subject. Digging Deeper Corn Laws, Britain, 19th Century. Tariffs are a double edged sword,…
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A Brief History On September 16, 1979, the Rap music trio The Sugarhill Gang released their groundbreaking hit, “Rapper’s Delight,” the first Rap song to land in the Billboard Top 40 as a mainstream hit song. America was baptized into a new mainstream musical genre that has persisted over the years, a movement also called “Hip Hop.” Digging Deeper Finding its origins in New York City during the 1970’s, African American and to some extent Latino Americans developed the Rap style of talk music, which has evolved into the wider genre of Hip Hop which includes “beat box” singing, record…
A Brief History On September 14, 919, a united coalition of native Irish fought an epic battle against the Dublin based Vikings that had colonized Ireland, a battle known as the Battle of Islandbridge. An indication of how real leaders used to put their own lives at stake in the interest of their realm, a stunning total of 6 Irish kings died in the battle, including their overall leader, King Niall Glúndub, the overking of Northern Uí Néill (Northwestern Ireland) and High King of Ireland. As indicated by the loss the 6 kings, the Irish lost the battle to the…
A Brief History On September 11, 1826, Captain William Morgan was arrested in Batavia, New York, supposedly on a charge of failing to pay a debt. The real reason for his arrest was that the ex-Freemason had threatened to publish an expose type book, The Mysteries of Free Masonry, a less than flattering description of the secret society. His subsequent disappearance and presumed murder led to a groundswell of opinion against Freemasons in the United States. Digging Deeper In fact, the increase in anti-Masonic feeling in the US continued to rise to the point where on September 11, 1830, the…
A Brief History On September 9, 2015, a new record was broken! On this historic date, Queen Elizabeth II (r. 1952-present) became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. The preceding line was our opening line in our 2016 article commemorating the achievement by Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, on becoming the longest reigning monarch in British history. Today we take a look at some of the travails the Royal Family has gone through under her reign. Digging Deeper For starters, during her reign she has lost the sovereignty over many realms, losing her title as Queen of Pakistan, Queen of Ceylon,…